'I was being given the best start in life'

Now enjoying a career in the City of London, Mark Morley knows that he owes much to the work of Catholic adoption agencies.

It was to such a group, staffed by working class-volunteers in Motherwell, that his mother turned in 1971. An unmarried Catholic teacher in her forties, she was left "holding the baby", in Mr Morley's words, by his father, a young French Caribbean lawyer on a business trip to Glasgow.

"As a baby, I spent time in a Catholic children's home, being cared for, I am told by my adoptive parents, by assorted Catholic volunteers," said Mr Morley, who has a further interest in the debate in that he worked in communications for the Church during some of its worst spells of child-abuse allegations.

"Finally, I was placed. I was only 12 weeks, but obviously it had been a traumatic beginning. The Church, to give it credit, didn't just drop me on the nearest safe-looking parents. Care, consideration, weeks of interviews and discussions were undertaken to ensure that I was being given the best start in life."

He added: "I'm not a dewy-eyed Catholic and I am the first to recognise the failings of the Church and indeed of its leader, Cardinal Cormac Murphy O'Connor, for whom I worked.

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"But to characterise the Catholic church as a prejudiced body is to miss the point of an institution wholeheartedly committed to the welfare of children."

He believes that the network of Catholic adoption agencies draws strength from the Church's roots in working-class communities, and says its agencies are "experts" in helping children from "difficult backgrounds. Contrary to the image some might have of the Church, the type of people who involve themselves in this work are able to empathise with their clients. In fact, the volunteers very often come from the same backgrounds, or had the same break in life."